Davao City hospital now has A(H1N1) test machine

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – A Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) machine has finally arrived at the Davao Medical Center in an effort to ease the backlog in requests for throat swab sample tests at the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Muntinlupa City.

Dr. Leopoldo Vega, chief of the Davao Medical Center, said it would take at least another 10 days for them to start using the machine for confirmation of A(H1N1) cases.

The hospital has been designated as A(H1N1) testing center in the south where all throat swab samples from Mindanao will be sent for examination. 

“In that way, it would lessen the testing time unlike when we have to send the samples to the RITM and it would take sometimes more than a week for the results to arrive because of the enormous number of requests for the A(H1N1) tests,” Vega said.

With the PCR machine now here, he said, test results are expected within 24 to 48 hours. 

Vega said the machine arrived last Aug. 3 and has to be calibrated first before it can be used in a laboratory specifically built for it.

At least three laboratory personnel of the hospital underwent training in A(H1N1) testing at the RITM last month.

The PCR machine reportedly cost about P6 million.

Vega said there have been 225 confirmed A(H1N1) cases in southern Mindanao and all of them have recovered.